We made chocolate! What a yummy and educational experience at The ChocoMuseo in Granada! We took the Bean to Bar workshop with Ismael, who taught us all about the process of making chocolate, from how the cacao tree is grown to the final bar you buy at the grocery store (or at the Museo, which has a great gift shop).
It takes 4-5 years for a cacoa tree to start producing fruit, when the fruit is yellow it’s ready to harvest. Each pod makes about three bars of chocolate. After harvest, the growers ferment the beans in wooden boxes covered in palm leaves for about a week, then dry them. After drying it’s time to roast the beans.
Ismael showed us a more traditional method of roasting them over open fire in a an that resembled a shallow wok, this certainly isn't how any large scale chocolate maker does it now! Everyone took turns stirring the beans while singing this 'native chant'-- that part felt more awkward than fun actually. It made me very uncomfortable about reinforcing overly simplified stereotypes of indigenous communities, but having no knowledge of those dynamics in Nica or what the references are of the local indigenous community, I didn't feel comfortable saying anything. I should have asked questions, that would have been the right thing to do. I gave-in to staying nice and reassuring to our slightly nervous teacher, ugh.
Cultural stereotypes aside (ugh, why didn't I say something? I will write an email) the beans start popping and smelling delicious when they are done cooking. Once cooled the beans are peeled. Just in the past decade the peels have become popular ingredient used in commercial teas.
Now the bean is ready to transition to its highest form: chocolate. We used a stone mortar and pestle to grind up the beans, which was a freakin WORKOUT. I was surprised to find that grinding the dry, cooked, beans made a moist paste vs a powder. Ismael told us this is because the bean is 60%(!) cocoa butter. So what’s left in your mortar is a beautifully shiny, dark, thick, paste.
After making the paste we made a traditional Aztec drink and a Mayan drink with our ground cacao, cinnamon, chili, pepper, water, vanilla and sugar. No milk or dairy product. This drink was commonplace for Mayans who lived in present-day Central America where cocoa was plentiful. For Aztecs from the area of Mexico, where cacao doesn’t grow well, it was only for the wealthy. Aztecs also used cacao beans as currency, a chicken cost 100 beans, a slave cost 500 beans (yeah, a human was only 400 more beans than a chicken).
After the drinks it was bar making time. Ismael informed us that it wasn’t until an Irish guy added milk to the chocolate mixture in 1606 that it became the chocolate we are all familiar with. The chocolate bars we buy today go through a mixing process that takes 15+ hours! Thankfully we didn’t have to wait that long, Ismael had some chocolate that had already been mixed for us. We then got to make up our own flavor by adding certain ingredients. I made a rum and seasalt bar, it was goooooood. Into the mold and freezer they went and an hour later we were eating our bars!
It kinda makes me feel bad that all that time and energy goes into making a chocolate bar and I can gobble it up in about 15 seconds! Kinda. Let's just say I have a new appreciation for my delicious addiction. Just make sure to buy Fair Trade and Organic certified chocolate to ensure the workers are paid a living wage and that they and the earth aren’t exposed to toxic chemicals.
If you want to read more about the harvest and fermentation and making of chocolate on a home-scale, here is a blog post with greater detail and lovely pictures.
* To come along with us in real-time find us on Instagram, @organicallygrowing
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